Friday, July 28, 2006

Review of "Bituing Walang Ningning": Second rate, trying hard... you know the rest

Photo Courtesy of titikpilipino.com

A highly-legendary quotation from a movie has never been so ironically uttered by someone so self-described. The soap opera "Bituing Walang Ningning" is exactly what "second rate, trying hard, copycat" meant and much more.

"Bituin" is the remake of the classic rags-to-riches movie of the same title starring Sharon Cuneta as the heroine and the incomparable Cherie Gil as the villain everybody loved. The TV incarnate's characters were ineffectively portrayed by Sarah Geronimo in the Sharon role and Angelika dela Cruz as an embarrassing and pitiful version of the Cherie Gil character. To make matters worse, the writers inserts tiring soap opera elements into the story to make it interesting, with disastrous results.

"Bituin" would have been a mediocre enough soap opera with its mediocre story and mediocre characters if it were not for Angelika dela Cruz' horrible impersonation of Lavinia. Angelika could have made the character her own if she inserted personal acting touches and originality to the role; however, she begins to emulate Cherie Gil's Lavinia, copying every batted eyelash and swagger that the classic character did. The result: a second-rate, trying-hard, Cherie Gil copycat.

ABS-CBN has successfully degraded themselves as the TV fad-makers to the eventual fad-followers as they erringly assumed that remaking classic Filipino movies into soap operas was the "in" thing to do. After the embarrassing turns of "Kampanerang Kuba" and "Panday", one might think that the producers, writers and directors have learned a valuable lesson. However, knowing the hard heads at the network, these lessons went into one ear but out the other.

Monday, July 24, 2006

Review of "Captain Barbell": Hit and miss

Photo Courtesy of journal.com.ph

Rarely do I give positive reactions to prime time soaps nowadays, and one of those lucky TV programs that gets some sort of praise is "Captain Barbell", the latest superhero soap to hit GMA prime time after the highly-embarrassing "Darna" (whose creators spawned another moronic fantasy soap opera entitled "Majika", but that is another article).

Surprisingly, the lead character of Teng is effectively portrayed by Richard Gutierrez, the current network's prime time superstar. This is in contrast to his previous work in "Sugo" wherein he plays enigmatic but uninteresting characters.

CB is the creation of the Philippines' top comic book creator Mars Ravelo, the same guy who made "Darna" and "Dyesebel". Captain Barbell's original story was about Tengteng, the urban poor boy who transforms into a superhero to save the day. CB's soap TV reincarnation gets a highly science-fictionalized face-lift by inserting various Marvel and DC Comics story lines into the picture; and this is where the show goes horribly wrong.

Firstly, it was perfectly obvious that certain story elements were shamelessly copied from well-known comic book/movie stories such as Superman, Spider-man, and even the time-traveling elements of the "Terminator" movies. The reason for this is that the writers probably thought that the kids who watch the show might relate to the story better if they find some of the story elements familiar; however, to us adults we find this laughable.

As the story goes along, we find ourselves immersed into the trials and tribulations of Clark... Er, Teng, the boy who would eventually become the country's greatest superhero. However, later on, as if adjusting to amazing powers were not enough, fate (or the writers) decided to add the stereotypical soap opera antagonist in the person of Sunshine Dizon, the greedy and jealous relative.

Afterwards, we root for the hero again as the writers use the characterizations to effectiveness. The entrance of wildly fun villains such as Rufa Mae Quinto make the story delightful to watch. This writing creativity, in turn , is contradictory to CB past enemies in the show such as Bubog (who is the Filipino version of a villainous Wolverine) and Adobe (who is an obvious amalgam of Absorbing Man and Colossus) who were stereotypical and tiring.

All in all, CB is a hit and miss show; sometimes it is effective and entertaining, most times it is tedious and laughable. So far, it is still in its enjoyable phase; and I am keeping my expectations low that it will get better anytime soon.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Review of "Agawin Mo Man Ang Lahat": Get ready for an afternoon of depressing TV

Photo Courtesy of Abante.com.ph

TAPE Inc, the makers of "Agawin Mo Man Ang Lahat" and "Saang Sulok Ng Langit" must have a penchant for ultra-depressing story lines. Although "Agawin" takes off a bit more than "Saang" wherein the heroes and heroines of the soap get their second wind early on by becoming stronger than the usual soap opera protagonists, the sadistic writers of the show make sure that the fighting heroes get double the pain and anguish.

"Agawin" has the same premise of all the Filipino soap operas that came before it: heroine lives normal life, gets messed up by ultra-evil antagonist because of money, heroine gets second wind and gets revenge. Rosanna Roces lookalike Marian Rivera stars as Almira, the heroine whose life gets messed up because of money, and Oyo Boy Sotto, the rising leading male as the boy. The rest of the cast includes Cheska Garcia, Matthew Mendoza, Wendell Ramos, and Mylene Dizon in the role of your stereotypical cold-blooded antagonist out to get everyone and anyone who stands for righteousness.

The story is formulaic enough for afternoon soaps, just throw in your usual good twin versus evil twin, dashing leading man, shadowy goons in eye-patches, the greedy antagonist, a juicy fight for some guy's riches, and you've got your afternoon soap right there. Of course, the show is creamed with TAPE Incoporated's trademark depressing circumstances.

I can bet that the next soap opera lined up by TAPE will be just as depressing as the others. Watch this, and make sure you keep the rope and poison far away from you.